‘Absolute creep’ photographer set up hidden cameras to film models undressing
A photographer has been jailed for 20 months after setting up hidden cameras in changing rooms to film ‘more than 100’ aspiring young models.
David Glover, 48, created secret recordings of women, who were sometimes ‘completely naked’, and catalogued them on his computer for ‘his own sexual gratification’, Peterborough Crown Court heard.
One of his victims said she felt ‘utterly violated’ at being filmed in what she thought was a private space, while another named him an ‘absolute creep’.
A third broke down in tears saying: ‘I thought about how this could affect my career now if they (the images) ever got leaked.’
A woman named Francesca Rowden, who waived her right to anonymity, said she had left the modelling industry.
She said it made her ‘skin crawl’ to think that she had trusted the defendant, who also photographed family events and weddings, to take photographs of her baby.
Glover, from Lincolnshire, admitted to five counts of voyeurism concerning 35 adult female victims who have been identified by police – but Thomas Brown, prosecuting, said a further ’70 or so’ unidentified women were also in footage.
The pervert’s ploy was almost uncovered in 2014 when one model’s partner went to a shoot with her and ‘noticed in the changing room an alarm clock that looked remarkably out of context’.
After investigating further in the Cambridgeshire studio, he discovered a covert camera, which had a memory card with footage of his girlfriend getting changed on it.
But Glover’s sick actions remained secret when he claimed that the studio proprietor had been ‘accusing him of taking things from the changing rooms and the camera was a security measure designed to demonstrate that that wasn’t the case’.
The woman accepted the explanation and apology at the time, and did not make a report to police.
Five years later, she went to officers as she ‘worried about what happened’ and ‘how far these images had gone’.
Glover, who would also do shoots in his home, had began working as a professional photographer following the breakdown of his marriage in 2011.
The court heard he was ‘well thought of’ in general, but the model said she had also heard ‘rumours of the defendant’s behaviour towards clients’.
Police seized Glover’s media devices following her report and more victims were identified as a result of the investigation and press interest.
Mr Brown said that by admitting to the charges, Glover was confessing that he filmed the 35 women for ‘his own sexual gratification’.
The bearded, grey-haired defendant looked at the floor and did not meet his victims’ gazes when several of the women came to court to read victim impact statements.
Mr Brown, summarising some of the statements, said they told of ‘anxiety, stress, distress, feelings of degradation, feelings of stupidity at being caught by such a thing, feeling physically ill, and wary of images escaping into the wider sphere’.
Mohammed Latif, mitigating, said Glover felt ‘guilt, shame and disgust at his behaviour’ and was of previous good character.
The ‘bulk of the victims’ were recorded in 2014 to 2016, with one victim recorded in 2013 and one in 2017, he added.
Judge Matthew Lowe said the offending took place over at least four years and was ‘clearly planned offending’.
Some of the women in the footage appeared ‘completely naked’, he added.
The judge went on to say the camera was ‘positioned on or near a mirror to make sure Glover got the view he wanted’, adding: ‘There’s evidence he at times removed obstacles.’
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